Should I change MachineGUID on VM servers?
I have a new HyperV server build, Windows Server 2016 Datacenter, with six Windows Server 2016 VMs. I built one 2016 Server VM (we'll call it VMSERVER1), installed all the latest updates, left the default computer name, and did not activate the license. I created five more VMs with no VHDs attached. I then created VHDs for each VM and copied the contents of the VMSERVER1 VHD that contained the installed Windows Server 2016 OS and attached to each respective VM. I booted each VM and changed the names to the permanent server names and activated the license. The one thing I didn't think about was the MachineGUID in each server is the same which also means the local administrator account SID is the same. Since the servers will be joined to a domain the local admin account SID may not matter quite as much but I'm concerned about the MachineGUID. I typically sysprep imaged windows10 PCs so that all the SIDs are changed. Can anyone say for sure if this could cause an issue in a windows domain environment? Thank you for your help.
Scott Silva
Not sure about Hyper V, but I regularly clone a base image to fire up a new server in VMWare. Joining the domain should create any SID's necessary.
what you could have done was create your gold installation and then used differencing disks for the remaining machines.
Walkthrouggh
Walkthrouggh
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Ok thanks for your help! Just to be safe I'll use the NewSID utility before I add the VMs to the domain.
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Thank you Lee!